Quick for LowISO

[Techie]

Name of Site: LowISO
Site Genre: Photography
Site URL: http://lowiso.com/
Type of Review ( Full/Quick ): Quick
Opening Date: Not really sure, early November. Definitely more than 14 days ago :lol:
Additional Notes: I wish I could get a full but we don't have 5,000 posts yet. Please critique as much as you can to help LowISO become a better place 😀 Also note that registered members don't see the index header or ads, but aside from that a registered member will see everything a guest can see.

 

[Red Herring]

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Review Accepted!

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Thank you for requesting a Forum Promotion review. You will have your review completed within 48 hours. If you have any questions regarding your review, feel free to ask me. While you are waiting on your review, why don't you take a look around the forum? After your review is finished, please rate your reviewer on how they did here.

Your review will feature the collaborative critique of the following reviewers:
phio_chan and Red Herring

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Thank you for using the Forum Promotion Review Service,
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[Migi]

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Quick Review by phio_chan & Red Herring​

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Analysis:

Your review has been cooperatively written by two members of the Review Team!
If the reviewer is using this color for their text, Red Herring is the speaker.
If the reviewer is using this color for their text, phio_chan is the speaker.​

Well, what have we here today, hm? "LowISO Forum", is it? My first thoughts jumped to a rather unfortunate conclusion: "Wait, is this a torrent forum?" Fortunately, it is not, as I would not be writing this review otherwise. I was tipped off rather quickly to the true nature of this website. "Photography meets community." So then, up for review today is a forum catering to photography. Fascinating. Certainly not an everyday genre of forum. Forums based around the subject of photography are not inexistent, but they're certainly not frequent. Quite a rare sight lies within our critical crosshairs. How exciting! I feel like a rare game hunter. And on an even more exciting note, I have the glorious leader of the review team joining me. Say hello, Phio!

Good day to you, Sir Cat. As mentioned, I will also pour in some thoughts into this review, assisting Red Herring to complete the review! Now, we seem to do collaborations a lot lately, don’t we? Let’s just say that this is an attempt of a team building, as well as providing the best reviews we can to the members of Forum Promotion! So, about the review. Much as what my fellow team mate feels above about the forum we are going to review, ISO reminds me of torrent a lot, especially because sometimes I use it too. #oops And that makes me looking forward in writing this review too. Let’s go and see what we can offer to help you improve your forum in this rare niche!

Strengths:

1. Interesting Choice of Genre
   So I get to kick off the review, do I? Neat! Well, let's see what we have here, shall we? ...Errm. Strengths. Right. Strengths. Streeeeeeengths. Errr. Well. To be honest, I'm having difficulty finding any strengths. No offense intended, of course. And it's not that the forum is in any way "terrible" or anything of the sort, it's just that nothing particularly stands out as "meritable." Most of what's presented are things I'm either completely indifferent to, or things that I very much want to criticize.
   
   Still, if there's one thing I must give credit to the owner for, it's in the choice of genre. Photography is not an unloved art, and it's a pastime of many an individual in our world. However, it's not a genre with the same level of love as...say...gaming, for instance. There is quite a massive percentage of the world that could be considered "gamers" in some shape or fashion, but a far smaller percentage would hold interest in photography and even fewer could be called actual "Photographers." When it all comes down to it, it's a genre with a somewhat limited majority appeal.
   
   However, the internet is a place of community. Everyone within it needs their own little piece of heaven to call home, and I greatly admire any forum that walks off the beaten path to provide for those individuals that desire to express their love of the lesser discussed genres. It may not grant them a massive user base, but these genres are typically the ones that forge the most strongly bonded communities.
   
   You have my support in this venture, LowISO Forum. The world wide web certainly couldn't hurt to do with a new community catering to Photography and its associated fields, and I am confident that individuals who appreciate the art will agree. I am not certain you will find success with it, but I hope you do.
   
   Exactly what Red Herring said. I have seen many art-related forums and websites out there, but photography has always been a child section among huge, matured sections there. Perhaps because photography is a little bit… challenging to be discussed on forums with written words? Since I imagined it would have been easier to show someone else your camera and how you take a photo, and so on. Same goes with other art/graphic-related business, in my opinion. So I appreciate your idea and effort in this genre, by providing a ground where registered users can share their experiences and opinions in photography.
   
   I notice your content mainly involves the technical details of photography, such as the usage of photo equipment and some software to support photography itself. I would like to suggest to expand the coverage of the content. Perhaps it is indeed hard to organize discussions about how to make good captures and elaborate on such topic, because maybe you will need mrore than simply words on how to do this and that, but a more integrated function such as video and the photos as the proofs. But hopefully what I said can inspire you a bit to add more content to this unique niche!
   
   
2. Core Members Group with Decent Activity
   A point on my own! Perhaps it sounds minor, but I choose to highlight this up because I want to appreciate your effort so far in this not-too-popular-in-online-communities niche. Your current member base is still small, yes, with only 24 members up until today and few posts above 200 posts. Still, I see there is a regular activity; new posts are more dominant than new threads. I also see few names which comprise your core members group, who regularly post around, respond to members, and give great responses and insights when necessary. Even more, they seem to know a lot about photography, which gives even more positive point for visitors to join your community because they can get input from those who know lot more than them.
   
   What I would like to suggest is to keep this trend up, obviously, as you try to expand this group even more and raise the activity level. This point is actually integrated with other elements of the forum, such as design and layout/organization. So in relation to those points, you obviously need to add more interesting content to keep visitors and members interested. Additional, integrated features alongside wider topic coverage hopefully can drive discussion even stronger. The guides you provided are quite interesting. A similarly regular content can be pretty popular and can invite interesting members in return.

Weaknesses:

1. Hello, Generic IPB Theme.
   As far as first impressions go, the impact made by LowISO Forums registered quite low on the radar. Well. Barely a blip on the radar, really. Practically non-existent. Before anyone misinterprets anything, my eyes did not turn themselves away in disgust or such. It's more along the lines of them taking one look at the forum and saying, "Oh. Well. It's a forum, I guess." In short, they were bored out of my mind and were quickly eager to move on.
   
   Now, granted, the IPB forum software isn't particularly known for having a wide and diverse selection of themes. Being honest, I'd have to say that the vast majority of them mostly look the same, just with different color schemes or slight remixes. But surely, LowISO Forum could do a bit better than what it currently has, couldn't it? The current theme hardly looks any different from the default theme. In fact, is it the default theme? I can't really tell and it's been awhile since I've used the IPB software. The only thing that feels different or unique is the sidebar information, which I honestly disapprove of.
   
   The logo does very little to alleviate this, being just a simple string of eloquent white text with a pink border. It doesn't look bad, don't get me wrong, but it completely lacks any form of branding or imagery which the community can associate with the forum. All it really does is tell you the name of the forum and nothing else.
   
   There's no sense of identity here, and that's a problem if a community hopes to establish itself. I don't see "LowISO Forum", when looking at this forum. I see "Generic Something Something Forum #9913945914." I hate to be vain and say that appearances matter, but they really do...especially on the ever-important first impression basis. I can guarantee that many guests will give it a pass because the forum simply doesn't look particularly appealing. And that's why I implore the owner that the aesthetics need some tender loving care, ASAP.
   
   I generally feel the same way about appearance as what Red Herring has written above. While IPB’s default theme is bland, much like any other default theme, it still has a sense of modern touch in the theme that it can still be used for a while. Of course, the best choice is to get a customized clothes for your forum. It doesn’t have to be something premium and expensive; perhaps a customized free theme can work as good as paid ones. My main concern with your current appearance is that the elements do not go well together. I absolutely love blue and pink, but the pink feels so out of place amongst a sea of blue. I think it will be slightly better if the colors were to match each other, from the banner until the “Create an Account” button, just a little bit.
   
   One additional advice is to actually go all-out for the theme, if I may say. Since photography is under art/graphic category, I feel like you are quite responsible to make the design appealing and spectacular, reflecting what photography is. No, I don’t want to scare you with such sentence. But think about what Red Herring says about identity, and think about the niche you have chosen. There is an enormous room for you to show off your skills in graphic-related areas, and this is one of them.
   
   
2. A Set-up too Simple?
   Okay, let’s try to touch this as clear and elaborated as I could. I’m pretty sure I’m right to assume that you would like to show off the simplistic atmosphere of the community to the members. It’s shown by the removal of the statistics area (which made me rather confused on deciding whether you fulfilled the requirements to make a quick review request before Red Herring found the members list, yes), simple sidebar, simple design, and straight-to-the-point categories/forums organization. Don’t get me wrong. I like simple things; life is so easy when things are so simple. But sometimes, things too simple can be confusing too, and eventually becomes boring. Let’s take a look further.
   
   Maybe I am too used to how forums are generally laid out that I find it confusing to browse a simplified forum like this. However, I believe you can still keep all those default settings for a forum without ruining the simplicity atmosphere you would like to present. Not displaying statistics in thread and forum view is not a big deal, but I would suggest to allow overall statistics at the forum index at least, for technical issues and also to invite guests’ interest with your activity and statistics. The same also applies to the navigation menu. Why don’t you put back the general tabs there, such as “Members” and “Calendar” for fun events you may organize at the forum? It can also be used as an access portal to an integrated gallery; IPB has a lovely gallery feature which will be perfect for a photography community such as LowISO. In other side, the guides which you currently put at the navigation menu can be compressed into one “Guides” tab, or moved to the sidebar which will also give it the exposure it needs without cluttering the navigation menu or the index page.
   
   Last, about the body of the forum itself, especially the index page as your main soldier to invite visitors and new members. The categories and forums can use more exploration and different touch, like I mentioned in your first strength. I think your “LowISO Community” forum is too cluttered, no clear definition on what kind of content should go there. At least a separation of the new member introduction threads and forum announcement threads should be visible in first glance. Or expanding to discuss other art/graphic aspects under general discussion area to see members’ interests? Those kind of points, when fixed and improved on, combined with a stunning design, should be able to give a wonderful first impression from the index. I also notice some points are gone from the index page I see as a guest after I log in. Mainly, the “best new content” which is an interesting feature. It will fit better and get more exposure at the top of the sidebar, no? At least, much better than placing a “Members Online” list at the very top. The “latest posts” can also show more posts by shortening the preview of those posts.

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Final Remarks:
Well, what can I really say about LowISO Forum? Honestly, first and foremost, I'd have to say that it's a bit too early in the game for this forum to be giving it a "proper" review. However, it still stands to reason that my overall impression was quite a negative one, all mostly because LowISO Forum is simply much too underdeveloped. The aesthetics have barely been touched upon, and there's several other aspects I really wanted to criticize, but I simply did not have enough room in this review. So, definitely come back for round two when LowISO Forum meets our criteria for a Full Review, and I or my comrades will give it the proper review that it requires.

LowISO has just started, that much is true. There may not be too many things we can say at this stage, but hopefully what we cover above is enough for now to keep the forum going on for few months or years to come so we can provide a better review if you ever make a request again. You have a potential niche, a nice software, some dedicated members, and good content to start with. The real adventure starts here, where you have finished the basic set-up and are going to explore the world and expand further. With hard work, I believe LowISO can grow to be a bigger and better community.

And so now we close our own scrutinizing lenses on LowISO Forum. The road is fresh and uncertain, but with more development put into it, the LowISO Forum could turn into a wonderful haven for photographers. So best regards, LowISO Forum. Whatever path you walk, whatever road you travel, we wish you the very best of luck. Salute!

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[Techie]

Thanks for the review guys 😀

I've actually aimed at simplifying IP.B because I feel like most forum software is too complex for a pleasant user experience, but I'll see if I can make the site more appealing to the eye while maintaining its simplicity (like the decision I just made to add a high-resolution photo background sitewide and see how it's received).

Red Herring, you said that you disapprove of the sidebar information, if you'd like to elaborate on that I'm all ears. My current focus on the sidebar is to show activity on the forum - to show which members are online (since I disabled the footer stats) and to show new content that's being created. Never mind, found it 🙂

The one task that'll be most challenging for me is finding how I can broaden the audience of my forum to appeal to more people, and not just photography enthusiasts. I'd like to forum to be a place where anyone can learn more about photography, because I feel that everyone has an inner desire to take better photos.

Thank you for the review again, and have a great New Years!

 

[Migi]

I've actually aimed at simplifying IP.B because I feel like most forum software is too complex for a pleasant user experience, but I'll see if I can make the site more appealing to the eye while maintaining its simplicity (like the decision I just made to add a high-resolution photo background sitewide and see how it's received).

I can understand, it's always a challenge to find out what your community wants and needs, since they're not always about the same thing. I hope you'll find a way someday. And the new background looks pretty, nice job. Good luck with the forum!

 

[Migi]

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